LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.- The Speed Art Museum presents today “The Light Within: Glass Sculpture from Louisville Collections,” on view through June 29, 2003. Thanks to numerous local collectors, Louisville is home to an exceptional range of contemporary glass. Drawing on this resource, The Light Within: Glass Sculpture from Louisville Collections will gather together over 50 outstanding examples of contemporary glass sculpture.
Monumental works will include brooding, introspective pieces by Sweden’s Bertil Vallien and the Czech husband and wife team of Stanislav Libenskà and Jaroslava Brychtový. Smaller scale works will also be included, such as a glass and barbed wire purse by Silvia Levenson, an artist interested in gender-related issues. Throughout the exhibition, pieces will be unified by the pure visceral and visual appeal of glass: in William Morris’s Trophy, tour-de-force artistry transforms glass into a mysteriously decorated antelope skull, while Richard Jolley’s Web of Life and Love explores contemporary life with brilliant color and meticulous skill.
The Light Within will be one of four concurrent exhibitions of contemporary glass scheduled for Kentucky Derby time in 2003. Institutions hosting the other three glass exhibitions are the Kentucky Art and Craft Gallery, Glassworks and the Louisville Visual Arts Association. Working together, the four institutions will deliver a vibrant, community-wide presentation of glass art.